Question

At the local ballpark, the team charges $5 for each ticket and expects to make $1,400 in concessions. The team must pay its players $2,000 and pay all other workers $1,600. Each fan gets a free bat that costs the team $3 per bat. How many tickets must be sold to break even?

Answer 1

Break-even is the point where the profit and expenses are balanced. At this point, the sum of the fixed cost and the variable cost should be equal with the total sales. Therefore,

FC + VC = S

FC = 1400 + 2000 + 1600 = 5000
VC = 3x
S = 5x

where x is the number of tickets.

5000 + 3x = 5x
x = 5000 / (5-3)
x = 2500 tickets should be sold